I’m going to push my “Finishing Stick-Man: Issue 2″ article over to tomorrow to post something a little different here. Over on the Facebook, my brother Greg innocently posted a link to an article about Shepard Fairey potentially being a plagiarist and wanted to know what I thought about it.
Here’s the link to the article: OBEY.
And here’s what I wrote back to him:
1. I’ve never cared for anything that I have ever seen of his and why is that? Because there IS no meaning in his work. Part of his process is to remove the emotional connection to the work by covering it up with his intended-to-be-poignant “OBEY” label in the hopes that it will be mysterious, when in reality it has no resonance. He couldn’t think of anything good, so he hopes you will fill in the blanks.
2. Art is whatever the viewer wants art to be. It is simultaneously the most interesting and frustrating thing about art to me. I have a degree and thousands of hours at the desk perfecting my craft, but you might just as well have a more powerful emotional response to a work done by [our nephew] Carter as he pushed crayons around on paper in an attempt to avoid toilet time. I cannot compel you to be moved by my work. Part of art is what the viewer brings to it. If the masses like it… what are you gonna do? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
3. I hate art speak. Take this paragraph from the article for instance: “It’s not surprising such pointless twaddle passes for a weighty aesthetic statement of purpose – these days any amateur with a minimally written crackpot manifesto can make waves in the world of art – but I still can’t imagine a more juvenile-sounding rationalization for an art project, especially when current conditions cry out for art that is socially engaged and introspective. Instead of meaningful insights into how propaganda systems work – even in democratic societies – Fairey gives us silly portraits of a dead wrestling champion. The artist toys with the veneer of radical politics, but his views are hollow and non-committal.”
Now watch what I can do to it: “It’s surprising such pointless twaddle passes for a weighty aesthetic statement of purpose – these days any amateur with a minimally written crackpot manifesto can make waves in the world of art – but I still can’t imagine a more juvenile-sounding rationalization for an art project, especially when current conditions cry out for art that is socially engaged and introspective. Instead of meaningful insights into how propaganda systems work – even in democratic societies – Fairey gives us silly portraits of a dead wrestling champion. The artist toys with the veneer of radical politics, but his views are hollow and non-committal. And I love it.”
See what I did there?
4. To the point of plagiarism: Were I to give credit to Fairey for having a true mission to his work beyond making money it might be that he is expressing the true sadness about a loss of our own shared cultural history. And we’re not going back that far. Many of the works that Fairey has appropriated are recognizable, important piece of art to particular cultures from very important moments in our history. Why was he not made to answer for his actions by the cultures whose heritage he has stolen from? ‘Cause they don’t know and/or don’t care. But I don’t think that’s what he’s doing, so it IS plagiarism and he should be made to write a whole lot of checks to a whole lot of estates.
5. Plagiarism vs. Sampling. Perhaps you remember the song “Ice, Ice, Baby” by Robert “Vanilla Ice” Van Winkle, where he “referenced” the Queen song “Under Pressure.” This is something that exists VERY commonly in the music industry for reasons that I won’t go into right now. My point is that, the music industry has taken the steps to make sure that artists who are sampled are given credit AND proper compensation for their original works. Fairey makes no attempts whatsoever to give credit to anyone and on the contrary, puts the burden on the viewer to try to “bust” him.
6. Part of what Art (capital “A”) is all about is tapping into the consciousness, whether expressed or not, whether recognized or not, of a particular moment in time, or a particular culture or a particular expressive or emotional movement. The fact that Fairey has become so successful and recognized whether you call it plagiarism or not, speaks volumes about the state of “art” (lowercase “a” to illustrate my disgust and disdain) as it exists today. Art historians may not LIKE what he is doing, in fact, one of them may actually MURDER him for what he is doing, but 100 years from now, when they are talking about this particular slice of art history… they will devote an entire chapter to his works and their place in Art.
Chatter